Vol. 469 No. 3
121 Mr. Finucane asked the Minister for Education the current status of an application under the educational disadvantaged pilot scheme for small schools in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Tipperary; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17239/96]
130 Miss Coughlan asked the Minister for Education when a decision will be made regarding an application by Convoy joint national school to be part of the rural package for disadvantage known as breaking the cycle. [17332/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 121 and 130 together.
The second phase of the breaking the cycle initiative is being targeted at schools with fewer than five teachers and particularly those in rural areas which serve dispersed populations and which have concentrations of children who are at risk of not reaching their potential in the school system.
Under this phase of the initiative, supports will be made available to 25 clusters of schools. Schools from all parts of the country with fewer than five teachers were invited by the Education Research Centre to apply for inclusion in the scheme. The schools mentioned by the Deputies are among those which made application to the Education Research Centre for inclusion in the scheme.
The relative need of all applicants has been assessed by the Education Research Centre on the basis of data submitted by schools under objective criteria which were devised by the Education Research Centre. I expect to be in a position to announce details of the selected schools in the near future.
